It is a common practice to protect circuits and associated components on PCB's by the use of one or more fuse holders which are mounted on, or snapped onto the circuit board . In one earlier fuse holder, the fuse cavities were spaced in parallel planes above the PCB surface thus limiting the number of fuses which can be accommodated in the fuse holder to one or two fuses. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,176 issued May 5, 1992 for Dual Position, Flat Mount Piggyback Fuse Holder, and U.S. Pat. No. 5, 114,168 issued May 12, 1992 for Single Position Flat Mount Fuse Holder, both granted to Carl E. Lindquist, the applicant herein, and assigned to San-O Industrial Corporation, Holbrook, N.Y.
It has now been discovered that by rotating the fuse cavities approximately 90 degrees, the member of fuse positions can be practically unlimited. Thus, by spacing the fuse cavities horizontally rather than vertically relative to the surface of the PCB, the number of electrical circuits can be increased significantly.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a fuse holder which can be right angle mounted to the edge of a PCB while being mechanically mounted to a vertically oriented panel.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a fuse holder which comprises a plurality of spaced cavities which are spaced horizontally in order to increase the number of electrical circuits per surface area of the circuit board.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a multiple position fuse holder which may be placed in a circuit board with predetermined contact spacing permitting insertion with one operation for numerous fuse positions.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the fuse holder of the present invention will be more clearly comprehended and appreciated from the ensuing detailed description and the accompanying drawings.